By: Illinois College rallied twice to force overtime, but the Pioneers netted the game-winner in the 100th minute.
Box Score JACKSONVILLE, Ill. – It took a session of overtime to decide the winner of the Senior Day match between the Illinois College men's soccer team and Grinnell College, but in the end the Pioneers netted a 100th minute overtime winner to secure a 3-2 victory. The loss dropped Illinois College to 9-6-1 (3-4-1 Midwest Conference) and improved Grinnell to 8-7-0 (6-3-0 MWC).
The scoring started early, as it only took four minutes for Grinnell's Antonio Dimarco to slip a rebound past
Ty Clearwater and give his team the lead. In the 13th minute, the Blueboys had an answer.
Brock Chartier maintained possession through a forest of Pioneer defenders and delivered an inch-perfect pass to the foot of
Mesfin Lenth in the middle of the 18-yard box, who put it in the back of the net past a beaten Grinnell goalkeeper to tie things up at 1-1. The match was level until the 26th minute when the Pioneers went in front again on a second opportunity following a corner kick. The Blueboys went into the halftime break trailing, 2-1.
Twenty minutes into the second half, Illinois College found itself with throw-in deep in the Grinnell final third.
Alex Gardner muscled the throw towards goal and
Luke Davis shielded off a Pioneer defender to deflect it backwards where Chartier was waiting to curl a shot in from the top of the box, tying the match at 2-2. The best chance until the end of regulation came when Artis Curiskis hit the crossbar in the 78th minute, but the woodwork was kind and IC took the match into overtime.
In the overtime session, Grinnell had its first opportunity to win go wide as Evan Sorenson couldn't make solid contact with good cross in from the right wing. It appeared that double-overtime was looming with less than a minute to play, but the Pioneers were the beneficiary of a deflected shot that ran across the face of goal where Nicholas Brule was waiting to slot it home for the winner.
It was an unfortunate end to the home careers of 10 seniors on the Illinois College men's soccer team.
Jordan Blair,
Austin Cearlock,
Ben Cochran,
Jojo Comstock,
Luke Davis,
Alex Gardner,
Cody Holop,
Adam Rodriguez,
Joe Tooley and
Anthony Willard all played their final match at England Stadium on Saturday.
The Blueboys end their 2015 season with a pair of road matches, beginning on Oct. 27 against Monmouth College at 4 p.m.
